In the second weekend of September, 14 young adults with disabilities, beneficiaries of the services offered by Health Action Overseas Romania Foundation (HAO), of which four were accompanied by their parents, attended the third edition of the Plogging for Romania, held in Constanţa.
The event is part of an ecological movement at national level, which began at the end of 2019. This edition was organised by the Adrenallina Media Association, and its partners, Health Action Overseas Romania Foundation and the Sanasport Association. During two days, 60 volunteers collected 1 ton of garbage and 1.2 tons of plastic from Tăbăcărie Park and Modern Beach. All volunteers wore protective masks during the greening and followed the rules of physical distancing imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The participants were divided into 4 teams, each with maximum of 10 members. In these teams, which included nature and sports lovers, were integrated young adults with disabilities beneficiaries of the LEAD project. We are talking about young adults with a wide range of disabilities, from severe mental retardation to locomotor disabilities. They got seriously involved in the greening of the park and the beach, socialized with the other team members and took part, as far as possible, in the sporting activities included in the program (stretching and running on the clean beach).
The young adults from the HAO team, beneficiaries of the LEAD project, coordinated by our colleague Alina Sachelaru, enjoyed the opportunity to take part in such an event and expressed their desire to participate in similar actions as soon as possible.
This edition of Plogging for Romania was funded by the Start NGO Programme, launched by Kaufland Romania and implemented by the Act for Tomorrow Association.
Until now, over 12 tons of garbage and plastic have been collected through the eco-sports actions Plogging for Romania.
The concept of plogging, i.e. the collection of garbage while running, has Swedish origins. It comes from the Swedish verbs “plocka upp” (to pick up) and “jogga” (to jog) which give the new Swedish verb plogga, from which the word plogging derives.
